If you are a single serve coffee lover but also want organic without the caffeine what do you do? It turns out that organic decaffeinated k cups are not that hard to find. Google the term. Target online carries several Keurig brands of organic decaffeinated coffee k cups as well as Newman’s Own, McCafe, Peet’s and even Folgers. And of course you can explore on Amazon.com for an endless variety of this product. If you want to go to the source of k cups visit the Keurig web site for Swiss water decaf k cups, both fair trade and organic. Other sources are Organic Gorilla, Rogers Family and even Bed Bath and Beyond.

Certified Decaf Coffee Process

We wrote recently about decaf coffee and whether it is organic or not. In our article Organic Coffee without Caffeine we noted that the only organic certified way to make decaf is the Swiss Water Process.

The Swiss water method does not use solvents to decaffeinate coffee. It was invented 80 years ago but required decades for technical improvements to make it cost effective. The company that does this is in Vancouver, B.C. and their process for making decaf organic coffee is certified.

To remove caffeine, coffee beans are soaked in hot water. The water passes through a large-pore activated charcoal filter with pore size such that larger caffeine molecules are trapped and smaller molecules (oils, antioxidants) pass through. The remaining water contains flavor elements but not caffeine. Then the first batch of caffeine-free beans is discarded.

Now new beans are soaked in the new flavorful but caffeine free water. Osmosis causes caffeine to leech out of the beans because of the difference in coffee concentration between bean and water. The flavor elements, antioxidants, etc. remain in the bean because there is not concentration difference between bean and water.

All batches are tested to guarantee that their coffee is 99.5% caffeine free. And decaf coffee made this way is always labeled as Swiss Water decaf.

So if you are looking for organic decaffeinated coffee in k cups look for certification of the Swiss Water Process.

Where Does the Coffee Come From?

Our favorite coffees are Colombian Arabica and this includes when the coffee is decaffeinated. Read our article about coffee from Manizales, Colombia for a sense of the culture and the quality of the coffee.

Manizales was founded in the mid-19th century by 14 families who moved into this mountainous region specifically to grow coffee. They are now known as the founders or Fundadores. The local upscale mall is the Fundadores and a large local grocery store is La 14 in reference to the founders. Coffee culture is everywhere and Manizales is the home of the Colombian Coffee Growers Association. There are large coffee roasting companies everywhere but our focus is on the small family operations. We visited one such company recently. Dad came from Tolima, Colombia a generation ago and founded a tilladora. This word translates as thresher in Google but is the operation for removal of the husk on the green coffee bean before roasting.